Cowboy Space Corp., a space startup created by Baiju Bhatt, a co-founder of Robinhood Markets Inc., announced that it has closed a $275 million Series B financing that sets the company’s valuation at $2 billion, the company said Monday.
Index Ventures led the round. New investor Blossom Capital joined alongside returning investors that include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, backed by Bill Gates, and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Based in San Carlos, California, Cowboy Space was founded in 2024 and earlier operated under the name Aetherflux. The company has revised its product roadmap: rather than focusing solely on satellites intended to beam solar energy to Earth, it now plans to develop orbital data centers launched on vehicles the company will build itself.
That strategy places Cowboy Space in direct competition with existing launch and orbital infrastructure providers, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, according to the company announcement. The approach relies on a design in which the rocket’s upper stage serves as the operational satellite once it reaches orbit - a concept Bhatt described in an interview as making the upper stage itself the satellite.
Bhatt said the decision to manufacture the company’s own rockets stems from constrained launch availability. Without its own launch vehicles, he argued, the company would lack control over its operational timeline. The firm has set 2028 as the target year for its inaugural rocket launch.
Despite the pivot toward self-launched orbital data centers, Cowboy Space said it still intends to move forward with a previously announced satellite payload slated to fly aboard a SpaceX rocket later this year.
Context and execution notes: The funding round, valuation and investor list were disclosed by the company. Founding year, prior operating name, the plan to build data centers in orbit, intention to build proprietary rockets, a 2028 launch target and the scheduled SpaceX payload later this year are the elements the company has announced.